Making A Homemade Baby Gift Basket

Gift baskets are among the most popular baby shower gifts. They are timeless, classy, essential, and thoughtful. What’s not to like? For the giver, it can be hurtful on the wallet, difficult to find, and incomplete in stock. How can you avoid all of these things when buying a basket set? Try making your own. It’s a daunting proposition, but if you just take a breath and a moment, you’ll find that making your own gift basket is not near as scary as it sounds.

To start making your gift basket you’ll need just that: a basket. This doesn’t necessarily mean the traditional giant wicker basket. Making your own basket provides you the chance to put your own distinct flare on your gift. Depending on your theme you could use unique items like a tool chest, toy dump truck, or pirate treasure chest for a boy; or a doll basinet, hope chest (miniature of course), or sewing basket for a girl. Your choices are limitless, which is why you need to filter them with a theme.

Your theme is up to you and the personality of the loved one you are giving the basket to. However, if you are stumped for theme, try one of these three main ideas: practical essentials, gender specific, or luxury.

Practical Essentials: This gift basket is based in the basic needs of the baby. Things like table ware, clothes, diapering necessities, bath needs, and toys are good examples. Inside this theme you can choose to focus on one specific vein of care (i.e. an all clothes basket for baby’s first wardrobe) or go for a wide variety, a little bit of everything. This category of gift basket is one of the most economical; buying essentials at low prices is much easier than with luxury and occasionally gender specific. When working with essentials, or any other gift baskets, try to find themes within themes. If you choose kitchen ware, choose a color swatch to work with, the same goes for clothing, color match your gift to its wrapping. There are so many things to work with out in the shopping world, have fun with it!

Gender Specific: Just like the name, this category works with a certain gender and the gifts in the basket should only relate to the one gender. This is really just a slight modification to practical essentials, but it is enough to create an entirely different feel. For this basket you, of course, need to know the gender of the baby. Then move on to a vein of baby care (or multiple veins) staying within the gender. This could mean a simple blue/pink theme, or it could be as elaborate as a dinosaur/princess theme. In gender categories, your options are widened to include elements like sports, tea-sets, wild animals, baby dolls, and other gender specific items to influence or create your basket. The decision is up to you and your creativity.

Luxury: This last category is the most expensive. However, if you are willing to go the extra financial mile, you can provide your loved one with a quality gift that you are completely confident in. One of the most common luxury gift basket items is bath needs, more specifically, baby spa kits. Things like special brand name soaps or organic moisturizers are great ideas to include in such a basket. Of course this style of basket isn’t limited to spa baskets, designer diaper bags, clothes, kitchen ware all make great luxury basket themes/items. If you choose to go with this self-assembled luxury theme, make sure your wrapping/presentation matches the quality of your content. If you aren’t confident in your presentation skills, find a friend with them or search the web for tips. Remember, this category of gift basket is the most expensive, if the most impressive.

Finding your items is the next step after choosing your themes. Where you buy them depends on the theme, but a good place for essentials is your local baby goods store. Even something like Wal-Mart is a viable choice if you are trying to save on cost. After browsing your local options, check the web for better deals or a wider choice selection. This is especially helpful for luxury baskets if you do not live near designer boutiques.

Finally you have presentation. The internet is a great place for inspiration if you need it, but let your own creativity be your guide. Remember, this gift is a reflection of you, and the fact that you are hand making it gives you the chance to tailor it to your personality (as well as the personality of the gift recipient). Have fun and don’t stress yourself over the perfect presentation, you can always enlist a mutual friend to help. Making your own basket is a great way to save on expense and create the perfectly suited gift for your loved one and the new little one in your life.